William Wong Blog

A common mindset in the startup community is that attracting investment is only about convincing an investor that your idea is worth investing in. Entrepreneurs are focused on tailoring their pitch decks to put their idea in the best light. What about putting the founder in the best light? Founders should spend more time convincing investors that they are worth investing in. In the end, it’s the founders that will be making the decisions that earn the investor their money back with their expected returns.

Evaluating your Secret Sauce is the third step in the Ideas to Reality Methodology. The first 2 steps, “Start with Why” and “Value Proposition”, will help you determine what you have that uniquely positions you to deliver on your idea. This is your differentiator that will mitigate risk and increase your chance of success. Many entrepreneurs look at their product as their differentiator, but a digital product can usually be replicated. Your secret sauce is how YOU will get people to use and love your product. If you’re worried about getting your idea stolen if you tell someone then you don’t have a secret sauce. Without a secret sauce, products compete on price and sales tactics. Not a great recipe for success.

Establishing that we have a strong connection with our idea in step 1 of the Ideas to Reality methodology provides the input for building a compelling value proposition. The philosophy that we follow at Ideas to Reality is that each step builds on the previous step with each step adding more detail while maintaining focus. When we get to a step that doesn’t work, we can go back to the previous steps to evaluate what needs tweaking.

The purpose of the value proposition is to articulate the benefit that you will provide that will make your customer love your product and become a loyal customer. We’re striving to create new demand or something that is 10x better than the current alternatives. Every idea requires a lot of work so make it count!

What is a personal connection to an idea?

A personal connection to an idea is an idea that you’re emotionally invested in.

A strong personal connection comes from insider information gained through personal experiences within an industry. You’ve interacted within an industry long enough to understand and care about the audience within the industry. You’re part of the community. Your insider information allows you to envision experiences that will elicit joyous feelings from the audience.

A weak personal connection comes from one off experiences. Many times people come up with a “great idea” through something they’ve read, seen or experienced for the first time. They really have no emotional relationship to the industry or the audience. These ideas manifest themselves as problem/solution type ideas. They are superficial, not being able to relate emotionally to the audience but rather logically through features.